New Delhi: In a huge relief to the Yogi Adityanath government, the Supreme Court on Wednesday, January 4, stayed the earlier Allahabad high court order that had directed the Uttar Pradesh government and state election commission to hold urban local body polls immediately without reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs).The apex court instead instructed the state Backward Classes Commission to file a report by March 31 after studying the political backwardness of OBCs to ensure that quota is provided to such classes. The state government counsels too argued that it will not hold an election until reservations are provided to OBCs.The top court’s ruling is a respite to the Adityanath government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which came under fierce criticism from the opposition for not ensuring quota for OBCs in the upcoming urban local body polls. On December 27, 2022, the Allahabad high court scrapped the draft notification for reservation issued by Uttar Pradesh on the grounds that necessary formalities relating to a certain ‘triple test’ mandated by the Supreme Court were not completed.The high court’s contention was that the government, under the triple test, should have carried out a study of backwardness among OBCs before issuing the December 7 draft notification for reservation. The state government, in a provisional list, had reserved seats for mayors of 17 municipal corporations, chairpersons of 200 municipal councils, and 545 nagar panchayats. The high court scrapped the draft notification on December 27, 2022, which the opposition said was a result of the Adityanath government’s “laxity” in completing necessary formalities.Within 24 hours of the high court order, the Uttar Pradesh government formed a five-member OBC commission, with Justice (Retd.) Ram Avtar Singh as its head, to collect data on the backwardness of the OBCs due to emerging political backlash. It also filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court to challenge the high court’s order.Also read: UP: ‘Anti-OBC’ Chorus Against BJP After Allahabad HC Nod for Civic Polls Sans QuotaOn Wednesday, January 4, the fundamental issue that came up during the hearing in the Supreme Court was whether quota for political representation in urban self-government bodies can be equated with reservation in higher education and public employment for social, educational, and economic backward classes, according to The Hindu.The Uttar Pradesh government, for its part, argued that there was no illegality in providing reservation to the very same 79 backward class communities listed in the Uttar Pradesh State Public Services (Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Act, 1994 in respect of seats and offices of chairpersons of local bodies. The 1994 law specifically refers to providing quotas only to access higher education and public employment, and not for the purpose of political representation.However, the Uttar Pradesh government’s contention that backwardness in education and public employment can be conflated with backwardness in political representation goes against the 2010 Constitution Bench judgment of the Supreme Court in K. Krishnamurthy versus Union of India. In the particular case, the top court had held that the “nature and purpose of reservation in relation to local bodies is considerably different from that in relation to higher education and public employment”.“The reservation benefits contemplated by Articles 15(4) and 16(4) [reservation in higher education, public employment] cannot be mechanically applied in the context of reservations enabled by Articles 243-D and 243-T [reservation of seats in panchayats, municipalities]. Articles 243-D and 243-T form a distinct and independent constitutional basis for reservations in local self-government institutions, the nature and purpose of which is different from the reservation policies designed to improve access to higher education and public employment, as contemplated under Articles 15(4) and 16(4) respectively,” the Constitution Bench had held in 2010, according to The Hindu.Although the apex court stayed the high court order and instructed the Uttar Pradesh government to examine the backwardness of the OBCs in terms of political representation for now, the matter will be continued to be heard in the coming days given the constitutional questions the matter raises.